By Li Tao

China's media landscape has changed drastically in recent years in which the country's rapid economic growth has had a major role to play. The reform and opening up and the subsequent relaxation of government regulations saw the birth of market-oriented media in China, after which even flagship Party newspapers began publishing profitable weeklies and dailies.

By Wai Moe

Burmese authorities denied on Saturday that there has been an outbreak of the plague in areas east of the Pegu mountain range, saying that the National Health Department has found no evidence of the disease in dead rats taken from areas considered at risk.

By Chularat Saengpassa - 'The Nation'

Using the emergency decree, authorities have recently shut down 26 community-radio stations in nine provinces and pressured six others to discontinue their services.

By Lynette Lee Corporal

PATHUM THANI, Thailand, Jul 8 (IPS) — Teenage boys gape at a coloured photograph of a vagina, while girls give embarrassed smiles as they watch a cartoon that showed penises 'talking' about masturbation. Young girls crowd around a display panel on love and relationships, as a boy embraces a female mannequin with all his might in order to measure the strength of his hug.

   These scenes greet many a visitor to the National Science Museum located just outside the Thai capital Bangkok, where 'The Story of Love', an interactive exhibit on human sexuality, is underway.

By Sam Rith

A prominent opposition-aligned newspaper has folded due to 'bankruptcy', its editor said yesterday, prompting concern from some observers that the national media landscape would continue to be dominated by outlets that support the ruling party.

By Armando Doronila

MANILA -The era of flogging to death the Arroyo administration came to an end on Wednesday with the inauguration of the hugely popular Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III. The inaugural lifted the oppressive weight of belligerence that blighted the Arroyo regime.

Rarotonga, Cook Islands— Media watchdogs here are concerned about the deepening "loss of free speech and fearless public debate" as legislation of new and sweeping controls over journalists and the media industry by the military regime in Fiji is put in place.

By Lynette Lee Corporal

BANGKOK, Jul 2 (Asia Media Forum) – Thailand’s media are not very happy these days, and it’s not only because of an emergency decree that turns three months old next week.

There are also government-instigated ‘media reforms’ in the offing, which has upset some members of the media here, along with press-freedom advocates.

By Kit Gillet

BEIJING, Jul 1 (Asia Media Forum) – Twenty-four-year-old Li Jun sits where he sits most nights of the week, in front of a computer in his local Internet cafe in the east of the Chinese capital, playing ‘World of Warcraft’.

By Ba Kaung - 'The Irrawaddy'

Burmese media have been given minimum space for election related news recently, but starting next month the space will likely be further restricted by new censorship rules.